Dallas City Council seeks bids to privatize police auto pound, may sell site

11:32 PM CDT on Tuesday, July 6, 2010

City officials are looking for a firm that can take over the Dallas police auto pound, an idea long on the cash-strapped city’s list of potential ways to generate more money.

At the bustling 24-hour impound lot, tow-truck drivers bring in more than 100 vehicles a day. Some are wrecked. Others are stolen vehicles found by the police. Still others have been impounded after their drivers were arrested.

Vehicle owners must pay the city $20 for each day the vehicle is in the pound. These fees, along with related towing and auto-auction revenues, bring in a net profit of about $3.2 million a year after covering the city’s lot operation costs of about $9 million.

Officials hope the auto pound could make more money for the city in the hands of a private contractor.

“We don’t know whether it’ll make financial sense yet, that’s part of why we’re putting out” the request for bids on a contract, said Mark Duebner, a civilian who oversees the Police Department’s financial and contract management division.

The city also is considering the sale of the 50-acre site where the impound lot now sits, at 1955 Vilbig Road.

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Oregon universities and colleges brace for record fall enrollments

Beth Nakamura/The OregonianEvan Luehrs, second from left, attends a full physics class Tuesday morning at Portland State University, which saw its enrollment climb slightly this summer to about 14,000 students or half its fall enrollment.

While the recession continues to deliver high unemployment, budget cuts and economic uncertainty, it also keeps filling Oregon colleges and universities with an unprecedented flood of students.

The state's community colleges, public and private colleges and universities are seeing record numbers of summer students and bracing for record-high enrollments this fall. The growth comes atop record enrollments last year and the year before, putting a strain on state institutions as they scramble to hire more professors and add more classes. Some say they are nearing capacity.

The Oregon University System projects enrollment will climb at its seven campuses by about 5 percent to a record 96,200 students this fall.

The state's 17 community colleges all expect to grow, with some projecting increases as high as 25 percent. They continue to enroll students looking for a more affordable path to a degree and displaced workers trying to get job skills.

At the same time, students are taking on more debt as state financial aid shrinks and some of their parents lose jobs and wages. Some students are opting for graduate school, and deeper debt, because they can't find jobs.

In addition, a large number of high school graduates, an influx of students shut out of Washington and California financially-strapped state universities and a continuing stream of people into Oregon all help fill the state's universities and community colleges.